I tend to read voraciously, though perhaps too quickly, since I often retain only an impression of a book and its atmosphere rather than its plot. A recent read that made a strong impression is Fearnoch, by Jim McEwen (Breakwater Books 2022). The details blur (and can’t readily be checked since my library copy has been returned) but I have a distinct sense of Fearnoch, both the small Ontario town that McEwen evokes with language both lyrical and grounded, and the people he populates it with. The events in the book include the lead-up to and aftermath of a natural disaster that echoes one which happened a few years back in a strikingly similar community just outside of Ottawa. But it’s the lives of the characters – of which the town is definitely one – that is most compelling. In alternating points of view, McEwen weaves the pasts and present of four former close friends: three men who still live in Fearnoch (a farmer, a dump labourer and a fish-out-of water bureaucrat) and a woman who has moved to Montreal where she juggles youth work and waitress jobs while writing a novel.
McEwen’s writing is full of both humour and pathos, descriptions that bring to vivid life what it’s like to love the land but hate the incessant struggle, to play hockey at a community centre rink, get drunk in a shabby local bar, or challenge anxiety and depression to risk a potential new relationship. As I recall, McEwen dedicated the book “to the farmers”. His sympathies certainly lie with John, who is struggling to keep afloat the farm his family has been working for generations. But he shows equal affection for the other main characters, all of whom he develops with the same richness and sensitivity. The many subordinate characters who populate Fearnoch, wives and boyfriends, parents, co-workers and community members, are also fully fleshed individuals. Their occupations and preoccupations, class and family lives are juxtaposed to create a multi-dimensioned portrait of a town struggling to maintain its rural focus in the face of encroaching suburbia.
Fearnoch was a finalist for the 2023 Ottawa Book Award. Even before the award announcement, I had read the other shortlisted books, all by authors who are friends or other people I know and like from our local literary community. Prize culture is rightly criticized, but I am grateful that the nomination brought Fearnoch to my attention since I might have missed it otherwise. (The publisher’s tagline, “Steinbeck meets Miriam Toews”, feels incongruous and would not likely have drawn me to the book)
— Frances Boyle’s latest book is Openwork and Limestone (Frontenac House, 2022). She has authored two other poetry books, a novella, and a short story collection nominated for the Danuta Gleed Award. Recent/forthcoming publications include The New Quarterly, Freefall, Ink Sweat & Tears, and The Honest Ulsterman. For more, visit francesboyle.com.
You can find Frances Boyle’s poetry in Issue 301 Autumn 2024. Order the issue now:
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